Mao's Last Dancer, a highly recommended movie.

MUST WATCH :)

Mao's Last Dancer is based on a true story of a Chinese Ballet Dancer Li Cunxin who grew up in rural poverty during Mao's communist rule. He was given the opportunity to dance in the West in the early 80s.

At the age of 11, Li was chosen from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet.

He was later offered to study with one of the top ballet companies in the world, the Houston Ballet in America. While he was there in America, he fell in love with an American woman.

Later on, he defected (as he was unwilling to return to China to remain with his lover, thus he was stripped of his nationality by the Chinese government) and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet.

At the peak of the film, Li was forced to choose between his career, family, culture, country and love. He refused to go back to China and this was where the conflicts began.

The film captured the essence of the story by provoking emotions and relating the struggle faced by Li in a moving kind of way. The viewers could generally sympathize with the hardship faced by Li's family during the era of communism under Mao Zedong and virtually followed through the protagonist' journey into a foreign, capitalist country and to eventually fall in love with a foreign girl.

Perhaps the most touching scene of the film was when his parents were flown to U.S. to watch their now famous son performed in front of a packed audience.

Be sure to catch it in the cinema near you. I would rate this film 9/10.